


but if you can't see it...

by PenelopeJadewing



Series: fictober 2018 [13]
Category: Naruto, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Arachnophobia, Bakusquad (My Hero Academia), Dekusquad (My Hero Academia), Gen, SOMEBODY KILL IT, Study Group, interruptions, nah Sasuke's got it, spider - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-27
Updated: 2018-10-27
Packaged: 2019-08-08 06:13:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16423958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PenelopeJadewing/pseuds/PenelopeJadewing
Summary: Sasuke just wants to get some decent study time in. Usually, he'd retreat to his own dorm room to do that, but somehow, he's allowed himself to be convinced by Izuku to join him and his friends in the common room this time. It wouldn't be so bad if Izuku and his friends weren't so idiotically chatty--and when Aoyama screams Bloody Murder while pointing at a speck on the floor, it only gets worse from there.





	but if you can't see it...

Usually, Sasuke prefers to study in the quiet seclusion of his dorm room. It’s his space, it’s familiar, and though the walls are thin and do allow an immoral amount of noise in from the outside, it’s better than having no walls at all. Sasuke can lock his door, turn on some nice lo-fi and turn it up, and complete his assignments in peace. There’s no more efficient way to do it.

But now and then, he finds himself inexplicably in the 1-A common room, textbooks and binders in hand, following a gaggle of peers that are far too excitable and distracted with each others’ company to assume that any legitimate work will get done. How can they be so frivolous? Even Izuku—alone, he’s got the drive of a bull elk, but stick him with classmates that aren’t Bakugou and he lights up like a kid at Christmas time. Not that Sasuke can blame him, but h*** does it make it harder to actually accomplish any schoolwork.

Still, the moment Sasuke had even hesitated when Izuku and his friends mentioned a group study, Izuku had given him that kicked puppy look that simultaneously gave the impression he was ready to launch into a motherly tirade about how anti-social Sasuke was being.

So he picks the chair tucked in the furthest corner from the others, nestled against the wall beside the television, while the others sprawl out over the assorted sofas and chairs around the coffee table. In total, they number five, excluding Sasuke himself—Izuku claims the center cushion on the short couch and Uraraka plunks down beside him and deposits her armful of books on the table; Iida, after distributing glasses of ice water he fetched from the kitchenette, sits himself onto one of the chairs with rigid decorum. Koda and Aoyama take the right and left ends of the long couch respectively, which puts Aoyama as the closest person to Sasuke.

He’s not sure how to feel about that, if he’s honest.

He’s never really talked to the guy… Generally, he ignores most everybody except for Izuku and occasionally Uraraka and Iida. Sometimes Bakugou if he runs his mouth enough. Everybody else… frankly, he has a hard time even remembering they’re in the same room sometimes.

It’s not that he’s entirely opposed to the idea of forging bonds, like Izuku seems to do with the ease of breathing. After all, Izuku turned out okay… and they’re still good friends now. It’s more that… hmm, perhaps his standards are just too high. Or, not too high, as he has no intentions of lowering them, but they’re certainly higher than most and keyed specifically to who he will and will not waste his time on. Izuku, he will. The Bakusquad, he will not. Simple as that.

Maybe this is what Izuku means when he calls him antisocial…

Which is factually incorrect, of course. Sasuke is certainly not antisocial. He’s just anti-stupid.

And he can’t really bring himself to care about people who haven’t proved themselves competent. He has better things to do with his energy. Though, this also limits his chances of then doing so… hmm. Okay, that’s a conundrum… something he’ll have to revisit later.

When he’s not trying desperately to focus on mathematics while his classmates chatter on like scurry of squirrels.

“Iida,” says Izuku, tapping the eraser of his pencil against his chin, “what did you get for number twelve?”

“Ah! That would be ‘the square root of the equation 12x multiplied by 7, divided by 2’.”

“Yeah, what’s the answer?”

“You misunderstand, Midoriya; that is the answer.”

“Oh wait, you mean we don’t have to solve for the variable?”

“Not in this case. If you’ll revisit the instructions for this set—”

“Oh, I completely missed that!” Uraraka leans her nose into her textbook. “I just assumed—”

“ _Oui, oui_ ,” says Aoyama with a flourish of his hands, “I spotted those particulars right away! One should always be sure and read one’s instructions before proceeding.”

“Very good, Aoyama.” Iida chops his hand in Izuku’s direction, and the latter looks properly scolded.

No matter how hard he tries, Sasuke’s textbook, spread on his knees which are propped up in front of him, does not make a good sound barrier. No matter how he buries himself in his work, their voices all sound stupidly loud, their conversation terrifyingly intrusive. He thought he had better concentration than this… Everyone he knows is always telling him he has a one-track mind, gets lost in his focus, but where is that focus now?

It’s because he’s not in his room, isn’t it? The universe is paying him back for thinking he could be both social and productive.

Screw that. He’ll do this. He’ll be fine; he’ll make it work. What kind of Hero would he be if he couldn’t adapt to inconvenience? He’d be no better than a certain lord of Killer Explosions they all know and loath.

Well, maybe not everyone loathes him, but Sasuke does and that’s a good enough majority for him.

He’s starting to adjust, little by little, the voices seeming less obstructive, when a sudden blood-curdling scream from no more than two meters away smashes his mental Reset button and his head snaps up from his formulas.

Aoyama’s in the middle of scrambling himself, feet and all, onto the couch cushion, dropping his books and shrinking against the back of the sofa, like he can become one with the upholstery. His face is the picture of terror, pale and sweating and his gaze glued to the floor just under the coffee table.

“What!?” Izuku’s on his feet the same instant, followed shortly after by Iida.

“What’s wrong?” the class rep echoes. Uraraka and Koda simply look on in stunned confusion.

Aoyama extends a frantic hand in the same direction his stare is locked onto. “Sp-Sp-”

Koda doesn’t seem to need more than that and the bulky boy is drawing his own feet off the floor, almost as frantic as Aoyama. The schoolwork forgotten, the two cower in their seats like perched chickens on a roost.

“Please speak up, Aoyama!” Iida insists, hands stiff and waving. “Tell us what is the matter.”

“Sp-Sp-Sp,” Aoyama sputters. Slowly, Sasuke gets an idea of what happened, just before the sparkly boy confirms it with a harrowing, “SPIDER!”

Iida just deflates, but Izuku rockets off the floor and onto his own couch cushion at that, eyes going saucer-wide as they sweep across the floor. Uraraka, who’s less frightened and more disturbed, carefully draws her feet up to sit cross-legged next to him.

Good. At least she and Iida have some sense.  _It’s just a bug, for goodness sake._  Sasuke attempts to turn back to his books.

“Where!?” Izuku blurts, scanning the area like one would for intruders in the dark. “Where is it?”

“It was right by my foot but it scurried off when I moved,” Aoyama bemoans, as if realizing too late that his dramatic reaction only ended them in a worse predicament. Koda joins him in harmony as the two wail in their trepidation.

_This… is sad._

“Okay,” says Izuku, eyes still darting around, “okay, it’s… it’s okay.”

“Yes, it seems to be gone now.” Iida nods, pushing up his glasses on his nose. “So shall we return to our studies?”

Koda shakes his head emphatically, and Aoyama doesn’t look convinced.

“I-It’s okay, Koda.” Izuku flaps his hand at the other boy, though his voice tremors and Sasuke just knows he’s trying to convince himself almost as much as Koda—despite Koda being the one with an actual fear of bugs. “Look, just, just don’t think about it! Yeah? I-It may have got away, but if you can’t see it, is it really there?”

Sasuke snorts. The kid sounds wholly unconvinced by himself.

Koda’s not buying it either, because he just squeaks and returns Izuku’s pep talk with a look of incredulous horror. “U-Um, yes! It is!”

Izuku just warbles in withering confidence.

“What’s goin’ on?” asks a new voice, and Sasuke’s vaguely aware of another group of students passing by. The Bakusquad, by the sounds of it, since Sero Hanta doesn’t really hang out with anyone else in class. The tape-shooter leans close to the back of the long sofa, while the rest of his group seems to be gravitating toward the exit.

Iida just sighs. “Aoyama saw a spider and now we can’t find it. But the situation is under control.”

“A spider?” Kaminari hovers over Sero’s shoulder. “How big was it?”

“BIG!” Aoyama shudders. “ _Énormément_ … hnngh…”

“Uhh, I don’t know what that means—?” Kaminari begins, only for Sero to cut him off with yet another ear-bursting shout that shatters Sasuke’s attempts at concentration.

“THERE IT IS, I SEE IT!” Tape Arms bellows, pointing somewhere near Koda’s side of the couch, between the cushions, which sends both Koda and Aoyama practically vaulting over the back of the sofa in their frantic desperation for escape. Aoyama almost careens into Bakugou, who’s hovering closest toward the door and who very much does not appreciate his personal space being invaded. He gives the sparkly boy a shove to cease his staggering.

“Watch it, Eyelashes!” Bakugou snarls, just as Sero and Kaminari burst into laughter at their poor victims’ expense. Aoyama looks about ready to melt into a heap while Koda’s shooting the troublesome duo a wounded look that might have worked had the recipients been anyone other than those two.

The Bakusquad makes its exit then, two of them trailing laughter and melodramatic warnings about watching where they step in their wake. When they’re gone, everyone breathes a half-hearted sigh of relief, even Sasuke. Except his is not half-hearted at all; in fact, this is the longest moment of silence that’s passed since before they even entered the building. He knows it won’t last… but he’s at least enjoying it more than the others.

“Come on, guys.” Uraraka speaks at last, matching Izuku’s attempts at empathy but with a calm that matches Iida’s. “It’ll be okay. We’ll just—”

Aoyama’s sudden squeak cuts her short. Sasuke’s vaguely aware of his presence in his right peripheral, but other than that, he refuses to raise his head for any more stupid antics. He doesn’t want to be involved. He needs to get these assignments done. He  _will_  get them done.

Then follows a murmur from the blond that Sasuke’s sure nobody can understand, given he’s closest to Aoyama and still can’t make out a syllable of whatever it is he just stuttered forth. Content to ignore, Sasuke scratches down a formula for the next problem.

“Uch-chiha-kun… i-it’s  _right there_ …”

Sasuke resists the urge to roll his eyes because that would make it obvious he heard. Instead, he smiles a bit as he writes in a satisfactory answer to the formula.

“EEP! S-Sasuke!” It’s Izuku this time.

And no matter how much Sasuke loathes the fact that this is his life, yes, he’s really about to do this… he begrudgingly raises his head. He fixes Izuku with what he hopes is a glare that says ‘this had better be good.’

Izuku points just past his head. “Don’t. Move. It’s right behind you.” He’s whispering, as if talking too loud might scare the object of his terror away and they’ll lose track of it again. Slowly, painstakingly, Izuku wobbles onto one foot atop the couch cushion and pulls off one of his worn old red sneakers. “I’m gonna throw my shoe at it, okay? Move over just a little so I don’t hit you.”

_But you just said NOT to move._

Despite this, Sasuke does exactly as he’s told not to do and instead of ducking away, he cranes his head around to catch a glimpse of the target in question. Indeed, just to his right and slightly above, the spider has crawled up the ugly lime green wall and suspended itself there, frozen. Probably able to detect all the attention radiating toward it in the form of swelling breath and hormones stirring the air around it.

Sasuke sighs. And sets his books down. Honestly, he doesn’t know why he even bothers to try anymore…

“Don’t kill it,” he grumbles, and reaches forward for the nearest glass of ice water. Which is probably his, honestly, but he hasn’t touched it. He stands carefully—he doesn’t want to scare the spider away at this point, not when he’s actually fixing to do something about it—and dumps his water into the nearest potted plant, so it’s completely empty and suited for his intended purpose. Then, easing close to the spider, he poises it, open end toward the wall.

He claps the glass to the wall in a blink, successfully capturing the perceived threat. Behind him, Aoyama gasps as the spider falls onto the inside of the cup and skitters around inside, contained only by thin glass and the steadiness of Sasuke’s grip.

With his free hand, Sasuke reaches back and holds out an expectant palm. “Somebody give me a piece of paper.”

Once that’s done, it’s not hard at all to scoot the glass and its single passenger onto the scrap of notebook paper Izuku scampered to bring him. Then Sasuke’s on his way out of the dorm, to the nearest bush, where he deposits the little insect safely into a cluster of leaves. No muss, no fuss… He can’t begin to understand what all the commotion is about. It isn’t a poisonous variety; just a little Joro spider. In fact, it was probably just unfortunate enough to come in through an open window somewhere and then get trapped inside. Definitely not anything worth a death sentence.

When Sasuke returns inside, however, he’s met with Aoyama’s overflowing tears and Iida’s thunderous applause.

“ _Magnifique_ ,” Aoyama’s blubbering, “ _très magnifique!_ ”

“Well done!” Iida trumpets, looking somewhat like a proud dad. “Well done, Uchiha-kun! Noble initiative, good sir!”

“You’re so brave!” Koda whimpers, looking both touched and somewhat ashamed.

Sasuke just clicks his tongue at them all, unimpressed. He marches right back to his seat, snatches up his books, and settles back into his chair in his little corner, drawing his knees up once more.

“Okay,” he says, tapping his pencil on the corner of the page, “so what problem are you guys on now?”


End file.
